Yun Bong-gil

Yun Bong-gil with the pledge he made to the Korean Patriotic Corps (한인애국단; 韓人愛國團) pinned to his chest. It reads:
"I make this oath as a member of Korean Patriotic Association to kill the military leaders of the enemy who are invading Korea in order to redeem the independence and freedom of our country."

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Yun Bong-gil was born in Yesan County in Japanese-controlled Korea in June 1908. He attended Deoksan Elementary School and also studied in Ochi Seosuk (a village school that taught Korean and Chinese). As Korea had been made a protectorate within the Japanese empire in 1905, Yun grew up in a troubled country. Local resistance grew considerably with the annexation of Korea in 1910. It culminated in the March 1st Movement in 1919 that was aggressively crushed by the Japanese authorities (hundreds of protesters were massacred by the Japanese police force and army).[1] The brutal repression that followed made many activists flee into China.

By 1926 Yun had become an independence activist, starting evening classes in his home town to help educate people from rural communities about the issues. At the age of 20, he had organized a reading club and published several pamphlets.[2] In 1930, after establishing two rural athletic associations for the nationalist movement, Yun decided to go to China because of the Japanese crackdown. On arrival in Shanghai he joined a nationalist group, the Korean Patriotic Corps (한인애국단; 韓人愛國團), that was organized and led by Kim Koo.

On 29 April 1932, Yun took a bomb disguised as a water bottle to a celebration arranged by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) in honor of the Emperor's birthday at Hongkou Park, Shanghai (one contemporary news report states Yun threw a hand grenade but they also say he was killed at the scene[3]). The bomb killed GeneralYoshinori Shirakawa(白川 義則?), and the government minister for Japanese residents in Shanghai, Kawabata Sadaji (河端貞次?).[4] Among the seriously injured were Lieutenant GeneralKenkichi Ueda(植田 謙吉?), the commander of the 9th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, and Mamoru Shigemitsu(重光 葵?), Japanese Envoy in Shanghai, who both lost a leg. The Japanese Consul-General in Shanghai, Kuramatsu Murai (村井倉松?), was seriously injured in the head and body.[5] Yun then tried to kill himself by detonating a second bomb disguised in a bento box. It did not explode and he was arrested at the scene. The Illustrated London News reported that:

"The Japanese National Anthem was being played, when a youth was seen to step forward and place a cylinder on the front of the dais and then dart backwards. A dull explosion immediately followed, but it attracted so little attention that the music continued playing. [...] others were seen to collapse wounded and bleeding, while soldiers seized the youth and battered him. Subsequently, another bomb of the same pattern was found near the dais unexploded."[6]

After being convicted by a Japanese military court in Shanghai on 25 May, he was transferred to Osaka prison on 18 November. He was then moved to Kanazawa, Ishikawa: the headquarters of the IJA's 9th Division. Yun was executed by firing squad on 19 December.[2] His body was buried in Nodayama cemetery in Kanazawa.

In May 1946, Korean residents in Japan exhumed Yun's remains from Nodayama cemetery. After being transferred to Seoul, they were given Korean funeral rites and reburied in the Korean National Cemetery.

However, the activities of Kim Koo and the Korean Independence movement remain very sensitive topics. In 2007 a visiting foreign professor provoked controversy and a student walkout when he referred to the likes of Joo and Yun Bong-gil as "terrorists" in a lecture on Korean history. Modern Korean history professor, Jeong Byeong-jun, from Ehwa University dismissed this description as a "view of Westerners".[8]